Lazy Louisiana Swamp.
Swamps transcend Louisiana. You can even taste the swamp by biting local air. Add a super high humidity to the picture and all you want to do is to stay put, light up a ciggy, have a drink and spit. You would probably just shrug your shoulders at the sight of local alligator crossing the magical land of Avatar, sorry Louisiana.
Last weekend we followed steps of one local drunk pirate Jean Lafitte (or privateer as it was his legal profession) to Jean Lafitte Preserve. This fauna and flora reserve is located only 30 minutes drive south from New Orleans. Although it is a nature reserve you will quickly realize that there is not so much fauna nor flora left in the region. The alligators are tiny as the big ones got shot. Back in times settlers drew them nearly to extinction. They did manage to annihilate local birds just by shooting them down - Passenger Pigeon or Carolina Parakeet are never to be seen again.
To learn more about local flora and fauna I truly recommend Water, Earth, Fire: Louisiana's Natural Heritage, by Paul Keddy. That was the first book we read upon our arrival to Louisiana. You will learn about the huge thirst for energy and money in America. Steam boats were running up and down the Mississippi river on veg sourced off its bank. The bold cypress was being cut on industrial scale too for timber you can sell.
"We used the old method of going in and cutting down the swamp and tearing it up and bringing the cypress out (...) Forest were intended to protect us from the soil erosion, cyclones, climate changes, and hurricanes. Shall we destroy the protection?" - logger of 1913.
Big levees built along Mississippi banks do help escaping floods but they also block sediments from piling up. The levees are also believed to facilitate land to subside. Add sea level rise to the picture and the fact that New Orleans is already situated few feet below sea level and you can imagine why you want to smoke a ciggy and have a drink right now.
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| Bold Cypress (Taxodium distichum) |
To learn more about local flora and fauna I truly recommend Water, Earth, Fire: Louisiana's Natural Heritage, by Paul Keddy. That was the first book we read upon our arrival to Louisiana. You will learn about the huge thirst for energy and money in America. Steam boats were running up and down the Mississippi river on veg sourced off its bank. The bold cypress was being cut on industrial scale too for timber you can sell.
"We used the old method of going in and cutting down the swamp and tearing it up and bringing the cypress out (...) Forest were intended to protect us from the soil erosion, cyclones, climate changes, and hurricanes. Shall we destroy the protection?" - logger of 1913.
Big levees built along Mississippi banks do help escaping floods but they also block sediments from piling up. The levees are also believed to facilitate land to subside. Add sea level rise to the picture and the fact that New Orleans is already situated few feet below sea level and you can imagine why you want to smoke a ciggy and have a drink right now.
The fact that "Our land is sinking, the coast is eroding, the sea is rising" was also addressed in the recent public address of mayor of New Orleans Mayor Landrieu and engineers at Tulane just won a contract for one of the biggest pump in the world.
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